Program / Project Management

Project management process encompasses some key concepts about the planning, monitoring and control of a project. Technatomy applies recognized project management methods and techniques which can be organized into five groups of one or more processes each:

• Initiating processes - recognizing that a project or phase should begin and committing to do so
• Planning processes - devising and maintaining a workable scheme to accomplish the business need that the project was undertaken to address
• Executing processes - coordinating people and other resources to carry out the plan
• Controlling processes - ensuring that the project objectives are met by monitoring and measuring progress and taking corrective action when necessary
• Closing processes - formalizing acceptance of the project or phase and bringing it to an orderly conclusion

The process groups are linked by the results they produce - the result or outcome of one becomes an input to another. The links are iterated - planning provides executing with a documented project plan early on, and then provides documented updates to the plan as the project progresses. In addition, the project management process groups are not discrete, one-time events; they are overlapping activities which occur at varying levels of intensity throughout each phase of a software/system development life cycle.

In terms of systems development and project management, the products of systems projects have certain characteristics that make them unique:

• Invisibility - when a physical artifact such as a bridge or road is being constructed, the progress being made can actually be seen. With software, progress is not immediately visible.
• Complexity - per dollar spent, software and system products contain more complexity than other engineered artifacts.
• Flexibility - the ease with which systems can be changed is usually seen as one of its strengths. However, this means that where the information system interfaces with a physical or organizational system, it is expected that, where necessary, the system will normally change to accommodate the other components rather than vice versa. This means that information systems are likely to be subject to a high degree of change.